The company has seen a 20 percent increase in same-store sales compared to last year. Including new store openings, the total sales increase rises to 50 percent. The Harvard Square location did 10 percent better compared to last year.

Booth said that her branch saw a “huge increase” between Thanksgiving and Christmas from people interested in consigning their clothing. They were booked for consignment appointments—clients who want to sell their clothes must bring them in for approval before the hit the racks—about three weeks in advance, an unheard of backlog.

“It was a lot of new consigners, people who haven’t done it before, calls from people who had just heard about us,” she said.

None of the six consignment stores interviewed reported losses. All had seen either sale increases, were expanding, or were at least holding steady.

At The Closet on Boston’s tony Newbury St., classic Chanel handbags are the quickest items to fly off the shelves. The Closet, which has only one location, gets its exclusively high end stock from consigners who receive a 50% cut of the selling price.

Employee Cassandra E. Knight said she’s seen “a lot of new faces.”

“It’s certainly a good business to be in right now,” she said. Knight said that they have seen more weekday visits from people browsing after work.

Second Time Around’s Booth noted a similar workday habit: “People are coming in more frequently for their lunch break, twice a week now [or] every Thursday.”

BUCKING THE TREND

This spike in consignment popularity comes in the midst of a brutal shakedown of the retail industry. The Associated Press reported last week that the retail industry cut 45,100 jobs in January following 14 consecutive months of job losses.

Last year was retail’s worst yet, and the Wall Street Journal reported that high end retailers like Saks have resorted to slashing prices to combat sluggish sales. Still, Saks saw January sales plummet by 24 perecent. Neiman Marcus is expecting a previously unheard-of quarterly loss for the holiday shopping period.

In contrast, 70 percent of the surveyed members of the National Association of Resale and Thrift Shops (NARTS) reported sales increases between fall 2007 and fall 2008, with an average increase of 35%. The vast majority also saw increases in the numbers of new customers and consigners.

Sales have stayed about steady at Oona’s even though White is seeing “a lot more competition” from other vintage stores. Her big season is Halloween, when customers come in to snatch up flapper and flower child ensembles, but Oona’s also carries clothing suitable for daily wear. She said that she has seen a marked upswing in everyday men’s clothing, since men’s fashions rarely change over the years.

“A Harris tweed jacket looks like a Harris tweed jacket,” White said.

Towards the end of the interview, a man came into the store, looking to consign his Ben Sherman wool jacket which originally retailed for $230.

Erol I. Zeybekoglu, who is “between houses” and living with a friend in Somerville, bought the jacket a few weeks ago before he broke up with his girlfriend and moved out. Commuting to work has now become a financial strain.

“Just the T fare alone is bleeding me dry,” he said, weighing his options of trying to consign the jacket or selling it on eBay. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”



SOME THINGS BORROWED, SOME THINGS NEW

Secondhand stores that carry big-ticket items other than clothing are seeing increases in sales as well. Boomerang’s in Jamaica Plain, a nonprofit owned and operated by Aids Action Committee, has been doing brisk business in furniture.

“Everything goes really quickly,” said store manager Jasmine Craft.

Donations have been steady, and Boomerang’s has benefited from the overstock left by abysmal retail sales that have forced stores to close.

The store has always had a strong customer base of college students, but Craft has begun to see a new breed of client.

“I recently noticed a lot more of what you call a ‘middle class shopper,’” Craft said. “Someone who hasn’t shopped secondhand in the past, [like] people seeking the antique speakers or parents who are trying to get kids clothes.”

Lydia Coyle, store manager of Kendall Square’s The Garment District, has taken note of the same phenomenon.

“I have noticed a lot more people saying, ‘This is my first time coming in here,’” Coyle said.

But buying secondhand isn’t really a new phenomenon. For Marlene S. Clauss, owner of the vintage shop Great Eastern Trading Company in Central Square, the customers have been coming in since the late 60’s when the store first opened. Clauss started working there in 1973 when the seventies were not yet a throwback.

Every inch of space in her shop is covered with a riot of color: bright pink crinolines compete with bedazzled belly dance costumes for ceiling space and the jewelry display cases are crammed with oversized costume gems.

“To me, it’s always been mainstream. To my customers, it’s always been mainstream.” Clauss said.

Like Oona’s, Great Eastern is “pretty much holding steady” in terms of sales.

“The biggest thing is that my business hasn’t gone down,” she said.

Consignment is also benefiting in part from the rise of eco-chic. Some shoppers see buying used clothing as a way to both save money and help the environment.

“I believe in reusing clothes, allowing the life of objects to pass through many people,” Elizabeth A. Parr said while browsing coats at Second Time Around’s Harvard Square location. Parr said she shops secondhand “in good times and bad.”

However, store managers are also conscious of the sentiments behind consigners, the brutal economic downturn that has inadvertently benefitted their business.

“I would get nervous if people were bringing their clothes into the store to make their rent,” Booth said.

—Staff writer Lingbo Li can be reached at lingboli@fas.harvard.edu.

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